Today With Sean O Rourke Friday 10 January 2014

Today with Sean O'Rourke

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Irish Water

Following revelations on yesterday's programme of €50 million spend by Irish Water on consultant fees, Sean was joined by Shane Ross an also by consultant Eddie Molloy on why the civil service salary cap contributes to the use of consultants.

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Paisley Documentary

Ian Paisley has played a pivotal role in the politics of Northern Ireland, his thundering speeches and blunt exchanges with his opponents made him a force to be reckoned with. Now at the age of 87 he has decided to give a full and frank account of his life and turbulent years in politics.

The man he spoke to is writer and journalist Eamonn Mallie – the first of his two part documentary Paisley : Genesis to Revelation is going out on BBC NI next Monday night.

Eamonn Mallie spoke to Sean from Belfast.

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Slavery

Steve McQueen’s 12 years a Slave premiers is giving its Irish premiere today. It tells the story of Solomon Northrup, who was kidnapped in Washington D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery. Yet slavery has not been confined to the history books, it is very much a live issue today. The International Labour Organisation estimates there are around 21 million people in slavery across the world today.

Sean was joined by Aiden McQuade, director of Anti Slavery international, the oldest international human rights organisation in the world.

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Insolvency Changes

The controversial insolvency laws which took two years to devise are in for an overhaul. A new protocol is being devised which will attempt to make the process easier to use and more straight forward. Noeline Blackwell Director of Free Legal Advice Centres was on the line.

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The Gathering

It was a week in which Limerick struggled to place culture above quarrels, when a trade mission to the Gulf returned millions in investment and where the deadline for submissions on the controversial erection of Eirgrid pylons came and went, with rural communities across the country up in arms about what may lie in store for the landscape.

For a look back at these and other events, Sean was joined in studio by Irish Independent columnist, John Downing; Public Affairs Consultant, Gerard Howlin and Senior Research and Policy Officer with the National Youth Council of Ireland, Marie Claire McAleer.